A Flare Among the Gloom
by HellieLovett
Summary: Sweeney has to investigate when Mrs Lovett is playing with... Fire? Weird little One-shot that popped into my head.


**This is just a weird idea that popped into my head. It's probably not possible. I don't own Sweeney Todd. ****-unfortunately-**

"What are you doing?"

Mrs Lovett gasped in horror when she saw the figure in the doorway. She turned quickly and tried to shove everything behind her, burning herself in the process. She winced and turned fully to the bewildered barber in the doorway.

He recoiled, noticing her hair. He coughed and waved a hand through the thick smoke that was plaguing the room.

"I smelled smoke... What did you do to your hair?" he growled. "Are you trying to light this place on fire?"

She groaned and smacked her head on the table in an attempt to explain her frustration. Her cheeks flushed, and her lip was stung with the repetitive feeling of being bit.

"I- it's nothing, ok!?" She huffed and began shoving her obviously home made supplies into the cupboard beside her, coughing the whole way through. "And you should knock first. I woulda liked ta know if you was comin."

Sweeney frowned deeper. "Why?"

She smacked her head on the table again, her misshapen hair going with her, shooing more smoke away.

"Because I didn't want you to see me doin' this! Downright embarrassin' for a lady, it is!"

"I still don't know what exactly you were doing. Unless you've become a pyromaniac."

Nellie sighed and rolled her eyes, which were tearing from the smoke.

"When I want your attention, ya ignore me, and when I want ya ta leave me alone, you're bloody tryin' to pick apart everything I do!"

"Fine", the barber grumbled, as he coursed out the door.

Mrs Lovett sighed and massaged her temple. _Difficult prat, he is,_ she thought.

"Wait. Sweeney, wait."

He sauntered back the few steps he had made. "What?"

She first doused the small fire with a pail of water at her side. Then she sighed once again, breathing in a mouth of smoke, and started hacking unstoppably. She waved her hand crazily, and then gave up and went to open the small window above her head. The smoke began to clear quickly, and she took in fresh air, sitting back down in defeat.

She couldn't believe her lips were forming the words, and she blushed a bright red the whole time she explained the chaos, wishing she could stop herself. But Sweeney Todd could play strange games with her, even if he was the one as still and silent as a statue.

"And- and I was thinkin' if I was even a bit more like your Lucy, ya... Ya might talk ta me a bit more. I was bein' right stupid, is all." She finished her tale with a gulp and waited for her punishment.

"Well, you look ridiculous."

She blinked, soaking in the words, and chuckled a bit. "I do, don't I? Guess that old Lucy wore it best, eh?"

He replied with a nod so small that Nellie decided it was a trick of the light.

Mrs Lovett's eyes caught his every movement as he sat down on a small stool in front of her. He rested his elbows on his thighs, hands clutched together. His facial expression read nothing. It was no more than a face, a neutral, meaningless set of features. And then he spoke.

"Show me how you did it then."

The baker looked up. "Are you joking? There's no way-"

"Show me what you were doing!"

"Why are you suddenly so concerned?"

"She- my wife- did the same thing."

Mrs Lovett gaped, her heart forcing blood through her veins twice as fast.

"Lucy had.. Curly hair?"

"Of course."

Mrs Lovett was suddenly much more eager to show the barber that she could do the job just as good as his old wife. She frowned in determination, and set two objects on the table beside her.

"Are you sure she did this too?"

"Why wouldn't I be?", snapped the barber.

Something in his voice wasn't sincere, but Nellie pushed it aside. When was he ever sincere? When he was cutting into other people's throats?

"Fine, then... But I'm warnin' you, it's about to get smoky."

She sighed and dug out a match from the cupboard beside her.

Striking it, she carefully set it to a piece of brittle wood... In a mortar-and-pestle bowl.

It lit aflame in a flash, and the smoke filled the room almost immediately. It wasn't as thick as before though, owning to the now-open window. Mrs Lovett quickly picked up two fist-sized flat stones from the cupboard she shoved them in, and dropped them into the burning fire with a wince and a cough.

Sweeney watched on with seeming interest. Or maybe it was just boredom? Nellie couldn't tell through all the smoke. But she doubted she could ever read his emotion, thick smoke or not.

Then with a yelp, she pulled both rocks out with her very fingertips. She winced and pressed her eyes shut, feeling the hot rocks scald her skin. But biting her lip in that way she always did, she took the two rocks, one in each hand, and pressed them over a lock of her springy hair. Her expression was painful as she pulled the rocks down to the end of her frizzy hair- and it was straight. Sizzled and frayed, but straight. As soon as that was done, she dropped the rocks in relief, sloshed the remaining water over the fire, and sat back, clenching her eyes shut, and taking a huge breath of easement.

Sweeney's scowl seemed to reach the bottom of his face. He took in her burnt finger tips, her sizzled and frayed hair. She resembled an electrocuted poodle. She obviously exhausted herself just to do this. But why?

"Why do you do this to yourself?" It wasn't a remark of care, but begrudging curiosity.

"Hey! If Lucy did it, shouldn't you already know? She loved ya. Wanted to impress ya. She took 'er time, silly girl, to look pretty for you. She loved ya. And she was willin' ta do anything to make yer head roll."

Nellie suddenly wondered who she was speaking for.

"Er- as I said, I did it because I... I wanted ta be a bit like her. So, ya know, you'd... Notice me." She clutched the back of her neck uncomfortably and fiddled with the worn beads on the neck of her dress.

He shook his head at his landlady's weird methods. He rose from his sitting position and began to leave.

He had lied to the baker. Of course Lucy never had curly hair. It had always been smooth as silk, shiny as if it was the moon's reflection on water. She would've never done such...

Well, weird things.

As far as Sweeney was concerned, Lucy had always seemed to think she was perfect for Ben. She never doubted her beauty.

Much unlike the baker- odd and insecure, doing anything to... Please?

What did she want from him?

He turned and gave her a final satisfaction of his words.

"Well I noticed you this time, didn't I?", he muttered, his mouth adorning a smirk.

Mrs Lovett cocked her head, a smile pulling at the corners of her lips.

"Ya sure did, love. Even if I've gotta be burning alive for you to see."


End file.
